Milodon Oil Pan System - Added Protection

Milodon's Complete Oil System Provides Better Oiling

Here is a complete oiling system from Milodon. The new kick-out oil pan will allow for an extra quart of oil and keep all of it in the bottom of the pan. The high-pressure/high-volume oil pump will guarantee constant pressure. We also used a new windage tray and oil pump baffle to keep oil where it belongs-in the sump. The new windage tray required our using Milodon's special main bearing cap studs.

Do you know that nine times out of ten, the engine you build for your hot rod will begin to exceed the performance of the parts that it was built with? It's a fact that happens with every project.

No matter what your initial intentions are, you continually need to upgrade to be sure the combination meets the demands. Many of these upgrades won't necessarily be for sheer performance, mind you, but more to keep your engine alive and running strong.

Your engine's oiling system should be one of the first things to consider upgrading. As you become more aggressive in taking corners or begin to launch harder off the line, you will probably notice a loss in oil pressure. What's happening is the oil is sloshing around in the stock oil pan, creating a cavitation problem around the oil pump pickup. It can be for a very brief instant, but that's all it needs to cause serious damage to your engine.

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We did the entire job on the ground, so make sure that the car is safely mounted on jackstands. We were able to remove all the pan bolts and drop the pan out because the K-member in this car was notched. In most cases you will have to slightly lift the front of the motor. With the pan removed, you can see the stock oil pump and windage tray. This is a late-model GM crate motor. Some applications may not have one from the factory.

A good solution to this oversight is a new oiling system from Milodon. Their kick-out-style oil pan, coupled with a unique windage tray and oil pump baffle is the key to help keeping the oil at the bottom of the sump for a constant feed to the pump and, subsequently, the bearings. Combined with Milodon's high-pressure, high-volume oil pump and a specially designed pickup, it is a low-cost, high-quality fix.

In swapping the stock oil system from the crate motor in our Classical Resurrection Camaro, we also splurged a little bit and opted for a windage tray and new main studs. To use the Milodon tray we had to remove the stock center main bolts and replace them with new, fully threaded studs. Then, we were able to fasten the windage tray in just the right position. The purpose of the windage tray is to keep the oil from whipping around the spinning crankshaft and connecting rods. Accomplishing this not only keeps the oil in the pan, so the pump can do its job, but also cuts down on the energy it takes to keep the reciprocating assembly spinning, which adds up to more power.

Originally, when we began the Camaro project (seemingly back in the Stone Age), we were content with the stock oiling system. However, since the engine in our Camaro happened to receive a Vortech supercharger recently, we felt this was a perfect example of upgrading a part that was previously thought to be up to par.

So follow along as we show you a basic overview of the upgrade. Our install went fairly quickly and was done on jackstands. In most cases the oil pan will not fit without raising the motor up a little bit. The front crossmember was notched on this car, and that allowed the pan to slide out.

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Milodon Oil Pan System - Added Protection

Here is a complete oiling system from Milodon. The new kick-out oil pan will allow for an extra quart of oil and keep all of it in the bottom of the pan. The high-pressure/high-volume oil pump will guarantee constant pressure. We also used a new windage tray and oil pump baffle to keep oil where it belongs-in the sump. The new windage tray required our using Milodon's special main bearing cap studs.

We did the entire job on the ground, so make sure that the car is safely mounted on jackstands. We were able to remove all the pan bolts and drop the pan out because the K-member in this car was notched. In most cases you will have to slightly lift the front of the motor. With the pan removed, you can see the stock oil pump and windage tray. This is a late-model GM crate motor. Some applications may not have one from the factory.

From here we removed the nuts from the stock windage tray. You will want to leave the oil pump on until the hardware from the tray is removed. Once the tray is loose, the oil pump is removed and the tray will lower with it. This will expose all of the studs that will need to be removed.

It is necessary to remove all of the stock studs and a few bolts. These will be replaced with Milodon's studs which are completely threaded to accept the new windage tray. The instructions tell you exactly what original bolts to remove so you don't have to loosen them all.

With all the old studs and bolts removed you can now install the new studs. Make sure you use a little assembly oil on all of the threads. You will want to screw these in completely by hand. DO NOT DOUBLE NUT AND USE A WRENCH TO TIGHTEN THESE DOWN!

All the studs are installed. Notice where the bolts were removed and studs were installed. Make sure that you do this step by hand and that all the studs dead stop in the holes. Once the studs were in place, it was time to install the new nuts. These have their own tapered washers that must be used. Next, torque the nuts to 35 ft-lb to make sure they all sit evenly. Then, go back and torque them to 70 ft-lb. This will ensure that all the caps are even.

Once the studs were tight, we screwed on the nuts for the windage tray. These nuts will set the height for where the windage tray will be positioned. You must make sure that they are all set at the same place.

We set the nuts, with the serrated washer facing down, all with 3/8 inch of thread exposed. From here you will need to set the tray up there and rotate the engine to make sure that the tray does not hit the throws of the crank.

With the windage tray correctly set in place we proceeded to assemble the oil pump and pickup. The pickup will slide into the pump and its bracket will line up with the lower bolt hole on the oil pump, so you don't have to weld the pickup to the bolt. A 5/8-inch open-end wrench can be used to knock the press-fit tube into the pump's body.

With the pickup in place we reinstalled the bolt for the oil pump, which secures the pickup and tube assembly to the pump's body. Using a little thread sealer doesn't hurt here.

From here we needed to grind on the pan baffle for it to fit correctly under the oil pump and fit the contour of the inside rear of the pan. What this little plate does is keep the oil from climbing up the back of the pan and getting on the crank. It sandwiches between the oil pump and the oil pump-mounting boss on the rear main cap.

Here you see the old (left) and the new oil pump. The new pump uses a metal sleeve to properly stay coupled to the oil pump and the rod that connects the pump to the bottom of the distributor. The stock pump has a plastic sleeve. By not using the metal sleeve that is supplied, you will damage the pump.

With the pan baffle in place the pump rod must slide up through the hole in the baffle. It is easiest to do this with the rod attached to the oil pump.

Once the oil pump was in place over the pan baffle, we had to set the windage tray in place. As you can see here, the tray goes under the oil pump bolt, over the pump. This will hold the tray up in the back, but getting it all in place can be tricky.

With the back of the tray secure, the rest of the windage tray is pushed into place. When the tray was evenly located on the studs, we tightened the oil pump and threaded on all of the nuts.

Notice with the tray in place that the farthest stud back on the driver-side is exposed (arrow). The hole is an extra-large hole so oil can drain straight down to the pump. When all the nuts are in place, they are torqued to 35 ft-lb. The upper nut will work as a jamb nut to keep the tray securely fastened. When everything is torqued and tightened, it should all look like this. This motor will now have zero problems keeping constant oil pressure, no matter how hard it goes around a corner.

The final part is the nicely formed, extra-capacity oil pan. Milodon plates all of their pans with a gold irridite process to protect the material from corroding. It not only does the job but also looks good in the process.

We take a look at the new check ball baffling system for drag racing oil pans from Jeff Johnston's Billet Fabrication which prevents pressure drop from deceleration and braking - Super Chevy Magazine » Read More

New products for this month include the Centerforce DFX clutch for C4's and Moroso's LS Series Oil Pan for Gen III and Gen IV vehicles. Other companies with with new products are Harris Speed Works, AMSOIL, Katech Performance and Caspers Electronics. Only at www.gmhightechperformance.com, the official site for GM High-Tech Performance Magazine. » Read More